Search Results for Shia

The UN special envoy to Yemen warned the UN Security Council during an emergency meeting Sunday that the situation in Yemen is teetering on the brink of civil war. The special envoy, Jamal Benomar, warned the Council that the increasingly violent and expanding conflict in Yemen could erupt into ...[read more]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday released its annual World Report, in which it criticized the role of Middle Eastern governments in sustaining the Islamic State (IS). HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth credited much of the emergence of IS to the sectarian and the abusive rule of former Iraqi ...[read more]

Iraqi police arrested Ahmed al-Awlani, an MP and prominent Sunni supporter of anti-government protests, on Saturday in the city of Ramadi. Awlani, a member of the Sunni supported Iraqiya bloc was reportedly wanted on terrorism charges along with his brother, Ali. Ali and five bodyguards were ...[read more]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the government of Pakistan on Wednesday to ensure that minority Shia Muslims in Pakistan are protected from attacks by Sunni militant groups. HRW noted that attacks against Shia communities have increased recently and that 320 Shia have been killed in targeted ...[read more]

A Bahrain court has sentenced a man to two years of imprisonment for making defamatory comments about a wife of the Prophet Muhammad. The 19-year-old man allegedly posted offensive comments on a website that insulted Muhammad's wife Aisha. The Bahrain Information Affairs Authority (IAA) announced ...[read more]

An Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced a Shia cleric to two years in prison on blasphemy charges. Chief Judge Purnomo Amin Tjahjo of the Sampang district court announced the sentence of Tajul Muluk, whose teachings were deemed to have deviated from mainstream Islam resulting in "public anxiety" ...[read more]

A Kuwait court on Monday sentenced a man to ten years of imprisonment for posting insulting and defaming comments about the Prophet Muhammad and the Sunni Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on Twitter. Judge Hisham Abdullah found 26-year-old Hamad al-Naqi, a Shia Muslim, guilty on all ...[read more]

Farzana Hassan: "Much of the Arab world is in turmoil. The Shia majority in the tiny island kingdom of Bahrain has suffered years of oppression by the ruling Sunni minority and is now demanding freedom. The citizens of newly liberated Egypt and Tunisia suffered economic hardship and repression ...[read more]

The trial of 25 Shia Muslim opposition activists began in Bahrain on Thursday with the activists pleading not guilty to charges of plotting to overthrow the government and supporting terror cells. The activists said that they were working for an unnamed foreign government. The suspects, who have ...[read more]